Dear Devotees,
Na mantram no yantram thadapi cha na jane sthuthimaho
Na chahwanam dhyanam thadapi cha na jane sthuthi kadha
Na jane mudrasthe na jane vilapanam
Param jane matha thwadanusaranam klesa haranam.
Neither I know mantra nor thantra nor your praise
Neither I know how to call you, nor meditate nor praise you,
Neither I know mudras nor how to cry to you,
But I know that by obeying you, I would get rid of all problems.
Dear Devotees,
We have completed the second quarter of the year 2010. Several religious events were celebrated this quarter. Sri Suktha homam went well. The laksharchana for Goddess Lakshmi was a great success. Everyone participated with great devotion. Tamil New Year Vikruthi was celebrated on 13th April. Graduation day was celebrated on May 22nd. This year’s graduates participated in samoohika Saraswathi pooja and received blessings from our priests to advance their further education. Medasuktha homam on 23rd May and Srinivasa Kalyana Utsavam on 26th June were celebrated well.
Vada mala seva we introduced few months ago has had a good response from devotees. The religious functions are done meticulously by our temple priests who take a lot of effort to follow the details of the rituals. New devotees and tourists visit our temple everyday. We have made great efforts to keep our temple clean and maintain the peaceful atmosphere for devotees to pray.
Good progress has been made with construction of priest quarters and classrooms. The Ratham (chariot) in India is also getting close to completion. God willing we will have Rathothsavam this year. We have redone the landscaping of the temple by planting several new trees and shrubs and have cleaned out unwanted foliage.
The Vidya Mandir is growing and is getting very popular. The Director of Vidya Mandir Dr. Mahadev Bhat, his crew of volunteer teachers and students all work very hard. Gita chanting this year went even a notch higher in standards and amazed the audience. Graduation ceremony was great. All our hard working students walked proudly up the stage getting their graduation certificate. We honored Shanti and Viswanathan this year for the great job as teachers and for going the extra mile to make the classes interesting to the students. As the president of our organization, I thank every teacher and volunteer of Vidya Mandir for making this possible and every student for their hard work and the devotion. Bala Mela, a fund raising event at our temple premises organized by the students, teachers and volunteers of Vidya Mandir was a great success.
The volunteer committee Chairperson arranged the annual Mothers Day celebration. We had lot of fun activities, food and other sales. Children performed on stage honoring their mothers. I thank Sunanda and all the volunteers for all their hard work.
The construction committee has been busy for the past several months. The priest quarters and classrooms are nearing completion. Mr. Thevaraja and construction committee members meet often and supervise construction activities. I have to thank life trustee Dr. Iyengar who is there almost everyday at the temple going through every detail of our temple activities. Without his leadership, hard work and tireless efforts and meticulous attention to detail, we cannot achieve what we have achieved today at our temple. I want to thank all the community members who have generously contributed for the construction and Ratham project. I also appeal to all the devotees to contribute whatever they can so that we can continue to operate our temple well and complete the project successfully.
The cultural committee had arranged many concerts. These include Peddada Suryakumari’s vocal concert, Suryanarayan Murthy’s Bharatha Natyam, Prince Ramaverma’s vocal concert and Kunnakudi Balamurali’s vocal concert. All the concerts were well attended. Bhajans conducted at the Temple on the second Saturday of every month is going on well. Please join the temple bhajans as frequently as possible. I appreciate the hard work our cultural committee chairperson and members are putting in to bring top class cultural events
The Prasad Mandir is very popular. The chairperson Shanthi Kalidindi and assistant chair Mr. Raghu Despande continue to work tirelessly to make sure everything goes on well. The hardest work is done by our cook Sri Adiga. Once again, I thank all the volunteers who help run the Prasad Mandir. The Prasad Mandir volunteers are unique. They spend long hours over weekends away from their families and help our temple. Please visit our Prasad Mandir as often as you can.
I thank all our devotees who encourage our temple activities, help in various ways, use our priest services for private functions, and use the Prasad Mandir facility. You make the temple activities go well and give us encouragement to do even better.
May god bless you
Sincerely,
P.M. Alamelu
President
